The Last
by A Scary Man
Summary: Exploring a new planet for signs of civilisation, the team come into contact with an advanced being (please review)


DISCLAIMER: I DO NOT OWN STARGATE SG-1 OR ANY OF ITS CHARACTERS.

Story set around series 4 or 5.

"THE LAST"

Chapter One

 The four members of SG-1 stepped out of the Stargate into darkness. There was total silence apart from the sound of their footsteps and breathing. The air around them was cold, and had a musty smell like the inside of an old tomb. Other than that there was just darkness. Thick, unrelenting darkness. There came a series of four clicks as each of them switched on his or her flashlight, piercing the darkness with a quartet of illuminating beams. From what little they could see, they were inside a medium-sized room; roughly the same size as the inside of a small church. The walls bore miscellaneous carvings and pictographs, and the ceiling rose steeply to a central point. The floor of the room seemed to be covered in chunks of fallen rock of varying sizes, from small pieces of gravel to huge boulders. 

 "Where are we?" asked O'Neill, his voice breaking the silence. "Daniel, any ideas?"

Daniel had taken a few steps to one side to examine an engraved stone pillar that stretched from floor to ceiling. 

 "Well, I'm not sure," he said hesitantly. "But judging from these carvings, I'd say this was some kind of…temple."

 "Temple, huh? You wouldn't happen to know – _whose_ temple?"

 "No. But these engravings aren't of any style that I've seen on Earth, so I'm assuming it's not a Goa'uld."

O'Neill nodded, "Good. Teal'c, is any of this familiar to you?"

The Jaffa glanced around the room, his eyes following the dancing beam of his flashlight, "I do not recognise this style of architecture."

 "Judging by the apparent lack of any light sources or machinery, it doesn't appear to be the work of a very advanced culture," said Carter.

 "Well, I wouldn't jump to any conclusions. Remember the Nox," said Daniel.

 "True."

 "It appears to have been deserted for many years," said Teal'c. 

 "I'd say it's been abandoned for a century at least," Daniel concurred. "If we're going to find any life-forms on this planet, I don't think we're going to find them here."

 "Okay, well, let's have a look around," O'Neill decided. "Let's try to find a door, or something…"

They separated into two groups; O'Neill and Teal'c exploring one side of the room whilst Carter and Daniel checked the other.

 "Watch where you put your feet," said Daniel. "This place has probably been falling into ruin for hundreds of years, so parts of the structure may be liable to collapse at any moment."

They shone their flashlights around the room as they made their way steadily away from the Stargate, treading carefully on the stone floor.

 "I believe I have found something," Teal'c said suddenly.

The other three gathered around as he illuminated his discovery with the beam of his light.

 "Okay, that's obviously a…switch of some kind," Daniel said.

 "I would recommend _not touching that," said Jack. "At least, not until we can get some idea of what it does. I don't suppose there are any instructions anywhere?"_

Daniel looked at the engraved writings on the wall above their heads, "Possibly. I don't know what any of this says."

 "You don't?"

 "Jack, it's an entirely new alien language. I can't just pick it up straight away. It's not like those 'Learn Spanish in 30 days' tapes you can buy."

 "Okay, well – any idea what this switch might do?"

 "It could do any one of a number of things. It might even be a lightswitch for all I know."

 "I have an idea, sir," said Carter.

 "What?"

 "Well, has anyone else noticed the lack of doors in this place?"

 "Yeah, now that you mention it…"

 "Maybe this switch opens up the way out," she finished. "Sir, we really need to establish whether or not there are any life-forms on this planet before we consider it for use as an off-world outpost."

 "So you're saying we should throw the switch."

 "When we've exhausted any other options, yes sir."

 "Well, there doesn't seem to be any other way out of here," Daniel said.

Jack sighed, "Okay – let's give it a shot."

He reached out and tapped the switch with his left hand. Immediately there came a low rumbling sound and the building began shaking around them on its foundations.

 "Okay – this is bad," said Jack.

 "The building is collapsing!" Carter shouted as the ceiling began to crumble above their heads and huge shards of rock came cascading down towards them.

 "Take cover!" O'Neill yelled, as he and Teal'c ducked behind the relative safety provided by one of the sturdier-looking stone pillars.

 "Daniel!" Carter screamed, as she grabbed the archaeologist and yanked him out of the path of a falling boulder.

The two of them took shelter beside Jack and Teal'c, and waited for the avalanche of rocks to cease. When the rumbling stopped, and the last of the rocks impacted on the stone floor, Jack got to his feet and shone his flashlight around the room.

 "What a mess," he concluded, surveying the huge piles of fallen rock and broken masonry.

 "I almost hope there is nobody living here," Daniel said. "They might not be too happy with us destroying their temple."

 "Hey, blame whoever put in that switch," Jack said. "Did it do anything, apart from caving this whole place in and almost killing us?"

 "I see no evidence of progress," Teal'c said.

 "No! Wait – there's a passageway of some kind here," said Carter. "It wasn't there a minute ago, sir. The switch must have opened it up."

 "Where does it go?" asked Daniel, shining his light into the passage interior.

 "Wait a minute," said Jack, putting a hand on his friend's shoulder to stop him. "Before we go any further, I want to check on the Stargate, make sure it didn't get damaged by the rock fall."

 "If it did, we're in pretty big trouble."

They picked their way carefully around the rocky debris until they were standing in front of the gate once more. 

 "Seems to be all right, sir," said Carter. "This part of the building doesn't seem to have suffered any collapse. Maybe it's better constructed."

 "The DHD still works," said Daniel, tapping a couple of the panels experimentally. 

 "Well, that's good," said O'Neill. "In fact, I'm wondering if we shouldn't just dial home now and get out of here before any more of this building collapses on top of our heads."

 "It seems to be stable enough now," Daniel said.

 "And we really need to properly explore this planet, sir," Carter added.

Jack sighed, weighing up the options in his mind. On one hand, the safety of his team came first, but on the other hand, this was an important mission and going home now might seem like giving up a little too easily.

 "OK, we'll stay here," he finally decided. "Let's go."

They returned to the newly-opened passageway and Jack cautiously led the way. The passage was narrow enough that they had to walk single file. They walked along in the enclosed space for a few hundred yards, their path lit only by the dancing beams of their flashlights, until Jack felt a slight draught of air pass by.

 "Anybody else feel that?" he asked. "We must be getting near the surface."

Before long the pitch darkness that surrounded them became lighter and they were able to switch off their lights and walk the rest of the way to the exit.

 Jack screwed up his eyes against the sudden daylight and pulled on his shades, "Ah…better."

When their eyes had adjusted to the brightness, the four looked around to examine their new surroundings. The passageway they had just left stood at the bottom of a near-vertical cliff face, which stretched upwards several hundred feet. The rock wall extended as far as they could see to both sides. They were, in fact, standing on a narrow ledge on the side of a very large mountain. Far – very far – below they could see the terrain of the planet. It appeared to be mostly grassland, with two or three large forests visible before the horizon, which was dotted with another range of mountains.

 "There do not appear to be any settlements," Teal'c said.

Jack scoured the land beneath with his binoculars, "No, I don't see anything either. There's no evidence of deforestation, no paths or roads. Just wild, open country as far as the eye can see."

 "Earth must have looked like this once," Daniel said. "While this initially seems like a good place for an off-world outpost, there's the moral implications to consider. What right do we have to spoil any of this natural beauty?"

 "Let's not get ahead of ourselves," said O'Neill. "This path looks as if it leads further up the mountain; we'll climb up and see if we can get a better view of the terrain."

The ledge on which they stood was narrow, but not dangerously so, and they proceeded in single file up the side of the mountain. They hadn't gone far when Jack noticed another opening in the cliff wall on their left.

 "Looks like another passageway," he said.

The interior of the cavern was dark, and he switched on his light as he led the way inside.

 "I wonder if this leads to another building," said Daniel. "If there is still a culture here, maybe they don't live down on the grasslands; maybe they prefer to tunnel out the mountain and live here. I mean, they must have built that temple back there at some point."

 "Yeah, and if they're not still around, the question we want to answer is _why_," said Carter. "If a whole civilisation has died out, there must be something on this planet that threatens human survival."

 "Hold on!" Jack said suddenly. "Did anyone else just hear something?"

 "Like what?"

 "Like a noise, from further in."

They had ventured far enough into the cavern that the entrance was a small triangle of light behind them.

 "What sort of noise?"

 "I dunno, kinda like – "

He was cut off by a terrible screeching noise, and something warm and heavy flung itself on top of him.

 "Colonel O'Neill!" Carter yelled.

Teal'c reacted quickest, priming his staff weapon and firing at the indistinct black shape half-illuminated by Daniel's light. The creature, whatever it was, gave a high-pitched scream and lashed out in fury, knocking Teal'c to the ground. Daniel swung his light round and for a moment the creature was fully illuminated in the beam. They had a momentary glimpse of a head with two red, piercing eyes, an armour-plated body, wings, then the creature had launched itself at the source of the light and Daniel found himself thrown to the floor. He felt talons scratching at his torso, and tried to push the beast away. It was too heavy and too strong; there was a sudden tearing pain in his arm, then came the sound of Teal'c's staff weapon and the weight was lifted from on top of him. The creature did not appear to have been harmed, merely distracted, and it turned its attention back towards Teal'c. The Jaffa side-stepped its charge, and bludgeoned the creature in the head with the end of his staff. The creature only became angrier, and its deafening screech of rage reverberated around the cave.

 It took all of Teal'c's reflexes and experience to enable him to dodge out of the way of the creature's furious attack, as it moved with terrifying speed through the darkness towards him. He swivelled, priming his staff, and fired at the creature as it turned to face him once more. This time the beast's roar contained something besides anger; there was pain too. Daniel aimed his light in its direction, and they caught the merest glimpse of the creature as it darted out of the light, hurrying back into the dark interior of the cave. Teal'c readied his staff in case he should come under attack again, but the creature seemed to have disappeared.

 "Daniel, you all right?" asked Carter, kneeling by his side.

 "I'll live. I think it got my arm."

 "Yeah, you're bleeding. Hold still a moment."

She bandaged his arm while Jack and Teal'c kept a close guard, in case the beast returned.

 "What _was_ that?" O'Neill demanded.

 "I don't know, sir," Carter admitted. "It looked like a – bird – of some kind…"

 "It appears there is still life on this world," Teal'c said.

 "Yeah," said Jack. "Well, that's a great endorsement for setting up a base here: unprovoked attack by psychotic six-foot birds."

 "It might just have been protecting its young, for all we know," Daniel pointed out.

Jack sighed, "You know, Daniel, you never cease to amaze me. This thing tries to tear you limb from limb, and you're taking _its_ side? Next thing we know, you'll probably want to enter diplomatic relations with it. Maybe it even built that temple down the mountain," he finished sarcastically.

Daniel blinked, oblivious to sarcasm as always, "It's not impossible. Not all intelligent species are mammalian."

 "Yeah, well, let's move on. Who knows how many of those things there are back there. We'll try further up the mountain."

They left the cave, again screwing up their eyes against the sudden invasion of sunlight, and Jack led the way along the narrow ledge that took them higher up the side of the mountain. The path led them on for five or ten more minutes, before abruptly narrowing until the cliff face was sheer, and they could go no further.

 "Looks like the end of the road," Jack said.

 "I don't understand," said a confused Daniel. "There's no other way we could have come. This has to go _somewhere. If an ancient civilisation built that temple, this must be the path that led them there."_

 "Well, I don't see it going anywhere. It's a dead end."

 "Maybe not, sir," came Carter's voice.

They turned to face her. She was looking closely at the rock wall in front of her, running one hand across its surface. A frown crossed her face, and she said, "Sir, I don't think this is rock."

 "Why not?"

 "It doesn't feel like rock. It's too smooth, too perfect – not rough and irregular like the rest of the rock face."

 "Then what is it?"

 "Some sort of synthetic material set flush in the rock wall. I wonder if – there's gotta be an opening mechanism somewhere…"

Daniel had moved over to join her, and he muttered, "Of course. I can't believe _I didn't spot this."_

 "Major Carter has an eye for these things," Teal'c said.

 "Yeah, I guess."

 "Is this what I think it is?" asked Jack.

 "Why, what do you think it is?"

 "A hidden door."

Daniel nodded slowly, "That seems the most likely possibility. It's just – we can't seem to find any way to open it…"

 "So why is there a hidden door here in the side of the mountain?"

 "Well, presumably somebody wanted to hide something."

Carter hesitated, "I can't help wondering if it's something that should remain hidden."

 "Aw, come on, that's what everyone said about the Stargate," Jack told them. "If it's a door, there must be a way to open it, right?"

 "Yeah…" said Daniel. "There don't seem to be any writings – or anything that might act as a handle – hmm, if we can't get it open, we can at least take back a sample of this material. I don't think I've ever seen anything like it before. It's some kind of construction material – my guess would be an advanced form of concrete – but it's definitely not the same material used to build that temple down below. Which suggests that we may be looking at two completely different cultures, one significantly more advanced than the other."

 "Wait a minute," Sam interrupted. "What's this?"

Daniel looked over, "That's it! It's just like that switch we found in the temple. This must open the door."

 "Uh-uh, wait a minute!" Jack broke in. "Remember what happened when we hit that last switch? We almost got killed. How can we be sure it won't happen again? What if this one destroys the ledge we're standing on, and drops us off the side of the mountain?"

 "Well, we can't come here and find the entrance to some construction, and then just _leave."_

 "All right. But we're not taking any chances. Get out the climbing equipment."

The four of them reached into their packs for their climbing gear. Each ramming a piton into the rock wall, they attached ropes and secured the other end of the ropes around themselves. If the ledge crumbled and disappeared, they'd still be anchored safely to the rock, and could use their gear to make their way back to safety.

 "OK, hit it."

Daniel hit the switch. From the interior of the rock wall came a rumbling sound, and each of them for a moment imagined the horror of the ledge beneath their feet collapsing into nothing, but it remained intact. For a second or two the rumbling continued, though there was no visible evidence of anything happening. Then – 

 "The door!" Teal'c said.

The hidden door was – well, the only word that would describe it was _dissolving. It was as if water was being poured on something made out of sand. The unknown synthetic material that the door was made of, was breaking up into chunks, then crumbling into tiny pieces, and finally all that was left was a fine white powder at the bottom of the doorway. Daniel immediately knelt down to examine it, breathing, "Wow!"_

Grabbing a test tube and a tiny metal spatula from somewhere on his person, he scooped a sample of the powder into the tube, and stowed it safely inside his pack. Jack was more interested in checking that no threats lay immediately inside the entrance. The interior was dark, and he switched on his light, flashing it around.

 "What can you see?" asked Sam.

 "I dunno…even with the flashlight, it's hard to tell."

Cautiously he took a step inside the entrance, his weapon up and ready to defend himself against any hidden enemies.

 "All right," he said. "Let's go inside. Keep an eye out for any of those bird things."

The instant he took his second step into the darkness, the room was suddenly bathed in light. O'Neill reacted instinctively, dropping into a defensive crouch, glancing hurriedly in all directions to assess any potential threats. There was nobody in sight.

 "What happened?"

 "Sir, what did you do?"

 "I didn't do anything!" Jack protested, looking around for some switch he might have hit by accident – there was nothing.

She frowned, "Well – maybe there's some sort of motion sensor…"

Daniel raised his eyebrows, "If so, we're looking at a more advanced culture."

 "We just have to find out if they're still around."

A/N: I'm posting this as a trial chapter. If you'd like to read more, please leave a review. If enough people are interested I will upload more.


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